Handler writes on Facebook: “Finally back from months of filming across the big blue. I will be posting a whale shark manta update from the field soon. In the meantime I leave you with one of my images that made the SUN paper in the UK and is now slowly criss crossing the globe. It is a humorous one for sure.”

Handler said that his wife Julia should be credited with discovering the Cookie Monster of the Sea.

Handler said: “It was Julia who went to get me, laughing through her mask about the unusual sponge … So I did an about-face and went straight to it, and worked the subject to light it perfectly to get as much personality out of the picture as possible.”

The Cookie Monster of the Sea photo is pretty cool but it doesn’t quite surpass this photo of a whale shark.